Kota Kinabalu: The Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Ministry (KPDN) will implement the Festive Season Maximum Price Control Scheme (SHMMP) in conjunction with the Kaamatan and Gawai Festivals for seven days.
Minister Datuk Armizan Mohd Ali said the Kaamatan Festival SHMMP will begin on May 27 and continue until June 2, whereas the Gawai Festival SHMMP will be from May 29 to June 4.
He said the SHMMP will be implemented three days before, a day during and three days after the festivals.
“A total of 10 items are listed under the Kaamatan SHMMP compared to eight last year, with the addition of imported large yellow and red onions.
“For the SHMMP in conjunction with the Gawai Festival, 11 items have been listed, compared to eight last year, with the addition of three items — whole coconuts, grated coconut and coconut milk,” he told reporters at Pisompuruan Hall in Kampung Kobuni, Inanam, Friday.
Armizan said the duration of the price control initiative considers the interests of consumers and the business community, allowing consumers to purchase essential items at reasonable prices while ensuring that traders are not burdened by a lengthy enforcement period.
Items listed under the price control scheme during the Kaamatan Festival include live pigs (with maximum prices set only at farms), pork meat, fat and belly.
Other items are buffalo meat imported from India (except the tenderloin), chicken wings, curly dried chillies, small red onions (India) and garlic (China).
The price control list for Gawai celebrations includes live pigs, pork (meat, fat and belly), live old chickens, chicken wings and round cabbage imported from Indonesia and China, except Beijing cabbage, garlic from China, and dried curly chillies.
Armizan said the SHMMP is enforced under the Price Control and Anti-Profiteering Act 2011 (Act 723) and KPDN enforcement officers will be stationed at strategic locations such as public markets, farmers’ markets, open air markets and shopping centres to monitor the prices.
